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Decorations: French
Shoulder-Knots were bunches of ribbon or lace, first worn in the time of Charles II. They were frequently enriched with precious stones. Anne of Austria presented the Duke of Buckingham, while at the French court, with one having twelve diamond pendants attached to it.
Fans were in great favour at the court of Elizabeth; they were made of feathers, and the handles were frequently inlaid with precious stones. In 1574, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, gave the queen a fan of white feathers, set in a handle of gold, enriched on both sides with diamonds and rubies, and on each side a white bear (his cognizance) and two pearls hanging; also a lion rampant with a white muzzled bear at his feet. A delicate allusion to his loyalty and devotion. In 1595, at an entertainment given to the pleasure-loving queen at Kew, by one of her great crown officers, "at her first lighting she received a fine fan with the handle garnished with diamonds." At another time Sir Francis Drake presented her with "a fan of feathers, white and red, enamelled with a half-moon of mother-of-pearl, within which was another half-moon, garnished with sparks of diamonds, and a few seed-pearls on the one side, having her majesty's picture within it, and, on the reverse, a device with a crown over it."
The most valuable collection of modern fans was that of the ex-empress of the French, Eugenie, which was offered for sale a few years since by Mr. Harry Emanuel. Among these was one that had belonged to Marie Antoinette; the gold stick is encrusted with enamel, pearls, rubies, and bouquets of diamonds, the whole being of pierced ivory in imitation of lace, with a Dutch landscape on each side of the mount. This fan is ornamented with the imperial eagle in diamonds.